How A Revival Sparked A Revolution - With Joshua Enck

Liberty didn’t start with a vote. It started with a voice. We sit down with Josh Enck of Sight & Sound to explore A Great Awakening, a feature film that puts George Whitfield back in the pulpit and Benjamin Franklin at his press to show how revival prepared the ground for revolution. Rather than retell battlefield moments, we follow an unlikely friendship that helped shape the American mind—pairing Whitfield’s electrifying sermons with Franklin’s genius for print and persuasion—to reveal why cultural change must precede political change.

Josh shares how a ministry known for epic, immersive stage productions stepped into cinema without losing its soul. The COVID shutdown became a catalyst: a filmed stage show reached more people in a long weekend than two years of sold-out theaters, pushing the team to bring stories to audiences wherever they are. That shift comes with a promise—no shortcuts, no sentimentality—just careful acting, tight scripting, and historically grounded scenes that honor the intelligence of the audience. The result is a throwback to classic, story-first filmmaking that still feels urgent and new.

We also dig into the film’s core idea of liberty. Not a slogan, not a partisan badge, but a conviction with biblical roots and civic consequences. By tracing Whitfield’s influence across the colonies and Franklin’s role in amplifying it, we connect the Great Awakening to the habits of self-government that made the American experiment possible. Along the way, we talk about reviving the voices of past pastors, the power of print, and why opening-week support matters if we want more films that meet faith and history with excellence.

Grab tickets at agreatawakening.com and share the trailer with someone who loves bold, character-driven stories about America’s origins. If this conversation moves you, subscribe, leave a review, and tell a friend—let’s put these voices back in the public square.

Transcript

Rick Green [00:00:07] Welcome to the intersection of faith and culture today. This is the WallBuilders Show taking on the hot topics of the day from a biblical, historical and constitutional perspective. Rick Green here with David and Tim Barton. And guys, when I say constitutional, biblical, historical, those three things, our movie we're going to talk about today is all three of those in a really cool way, quite literally going back to the Constitutional Convention, going back the Great Awakening. I mean, this is going to be fun guys. I think we've all wanted to see a movie about Whitfield be done. And today we get to have the producer, director of this incredible new movie, A Great Awakening going to be great. 

Tim Barton [00:00:40] Yeah, I'm so excited. They did send us a screener link, and I haven't been able to watch it yet. So, I'm already jealous that you already saw it you've been bragging on it. 

Rick Green [00:00:49] Wait! Tim! Tim! Wait you didn't even.. I had such a good pun there. I said it's gonna be great!

Tim Barton [00:01:01] And I've awakened to the greatness of your pun. Okay. Yes, a lot, but I mean, guys, when we first saw the trailer and just kind of going, I can't believe and in the best way possible, somebody is finally doing this thing. Because we have talked for years about how if it wasn't for the first grid awakening, there is no American Revolution. If it wasn't for the Second Great Awakening, you don't see the end of slavery in America, et cetera, et cetera, at least not with the end of the Civil War, kind of the way it unfolded. The Great Awakenings are what moved the culture, and when you go to the First Great Awakening, that main voice was George Whitefield, and so many people overlook the, not necessarily influence of Whitefield, but maybe some of the relational connections that Whitefield had. That, very well documented but ignored, where Franklin actually becomes very good friends, we're George Whitfield. Franklin writes some letters and says, hey, anytime you're in Philadelphia, like come stay at my house. It's not much, but I would love for you to be here. And they begin a series of letter exchanges and they, they get connected and their friendship and their relationship grows and there's just so many layers to this. That nobody had ever done. So, when we saw the trailer, I mean, I remember texting you guys going, this is amazing. I am so excited about this. And then of course we said, I hope they don't mess this up. I, I, hope they did a good job in telling an honest story. And, then Dad, you and Rick both have already seen much of it. And both y'all were like, they did such a good job. And we even talked a little bit before we came on about maybe how much we should or couldn't say, because we don't want to give away the movie. And then I was chuckling in my head going, well....this is historic accounts, so like not giving away the ending is like watching the Titanic with a friend of me and like, don't tell me what happens. Well, this is like historically documented. We kind of know what's going to happen to some extent with this, but guys, this is so cool that there's a movie coming out as we're celebrating the 250th year of America being a nation. That actually tells the foundational story of how we became a nation in the first place and it was on the tail of the First Great Awakening and had it not been for the influence of the First Great Awakening, we probably don't become a nation the first place.

David Barton [00:03:14] Yeah, but the thing I really thought was cool about this movie was I was thinking back and with the collections and the two museums that we do here, one area that we've collected a lot of is related to Hollywood, and especially in the golden years of Hollywood, especially folks like Cecil B. DeMille, who is a great director. And here's a guy who was a Christian, grew up as a Christian did theater Christian stuff, but he believed that it should be higher quality than anything else out there. And so, I mean, he makes these mega movies, Ten Commandments and Ben-Hur and all these, well, William Wilder did that, but that was the kind of movies he was doing. And they're the kind that win the Academy Awards. And it's really rare today to have a genuinely Christian movie win an Academy Award. And somehow, it's kind of like the stepchild in Hollywood, but this one, watching this, watching the Constitutional Convention open, watching the acting, watching the scripting, I was thrown back to, hey, this is a really good. Christian type of movie more like the 50s and the 40s were that they had great actors and great acting and great stories. And man, I was just super impressed with it was it was really nice to have a Christian movie that was really struck me as high quality. And what I think is so cool about this is if you go back to Jesus when He's talking to the crowds Yeah, He teaches but he teaches more often with parables using stories. He tells a story there was this man there was a servant there was... And He's always storytelling. And that was the way that the old golden years of Hollywood were, they would tell stories, whether it was Sergeant York or whether it was battles or World War II, they were storytelling. And this is a throwback to that. This is a storytelling kind of thing. Not that you've got a narrator, but you're really watching a story and somehow God made us respond to stories. We're told that we overcome by the word of our testimony, that is telling our story. When we tell our stories to others, that's a spiritual overcoming. And so, I was just really thrilled to see great storytelling in this, great acting in this and it's about something that is so seminal to American history, Tim, as you pointed out. We're not this nation without the Great Awakening and we should have had movies in this long before now, but this is really great. 

Rick Green [00:05:30] Looking forward to talking to the director, producer, writer and then also just finding out what Sight and Sound's up to in addition to these feature films. Stay with us folks you're listening to The WallBuilders Show. 

Rick Green [00:06:44] Welcome back to the WallBuilders Show. Thanks for staying with us, man. I am so excited about this interview. We talk here all the time about taking the arts back. We talk about being able to get high quality and not the cheesy stuff. And so we are thrilled about this movie. As David's already said, he greatly enjoyed it as well. And Josh Enck is with us from sight and sound who do amazing productions on stage, but now to the big screen, Josh, God bless you man for all that y'all are doing. And thanks for taking a few minutes with us today. 

Josh Enck [00:07:13] Oh man, Rick, God bless you too. You guys are heroes of mine. I'm serious. Like I've been appreciating all that you guys have been doing with the, the founding of this nation and your passion for the right kind of Liberty. NRB was such a blessing. I was able to see the Barton's there and they were speaking at the event, the 250 events and I leaned over to my colleague and I said, man, I want to talk to those guys. And so here we are. So, thank you for having me. 

Rick Green [00:07:40] Oh man, well, we're a mutual admiration society today then because, you know, you're, you're doing exactly what we have, you know, called on people and of course y'all have done it from, from the stage for a long time, but this story is so near and dear to our hearts and, and the way you captured even the scenes at the constitutional convention. You know, I, I've called David Barton, the George Whitfield of our, of our generation for a long time, because he just tirelessly, you know, 400 events a year and for decades, literally sowed the seeds to help bring back so much of what's happening for the 250th. So, for, for us and, you know, David will never call himself that or say that, but for us, it is the timing's perfect, bro. I think God put you all where you are and get any experience that you've had, you know, with the things you've done over, over the last couple of decades now has been, I think, I think to lead up to this in many, many ways. I mean, I know everything you've already done with the, you know, David and, and all the different productions has been phenomenal, but the country needs this movie, man. The country needs this movie. Tell us what, why you, the, the shift to the big screen, what, what motivated this? Give us kind of the backstory before we talk about the movie itself. 

Josh Enck [00:08:51] Yeah, no, I'd love to thank you. You know Sight and Sound has been around for 50 years bringing the bible to life on stage. We have a 300-foot wraparound stage. We have two theaters one in Lancaster, Pennsylvania one in Branson, Missouri. We bring the Bible life in a really big epic way and we always say it's where spectacle meets story. That's where sight and sounds happens. We're passionate storytellers moving people's hearts towards truth through the power of storytelling. I always say, you know if the Lord chose for three and a half years to be a storyteller, to change the world. It still works today. And so we are, we are an 800 strong ministry that, wants to just move people's hearts toward Him. In COVID, when all of our theaters shut down, we had one of our stage productions filmed and it was on the story of Jesus and we were really excited to get that out in the movie theaters nationwide for Easter, 2020, all the theaters shutdown, including ours. And we were gonna, on record to have a record-breaking year with Queen Esther on the Lancaster stage. And so, what we did was on Easter, we decided to send that Jesus film that we did out to the world through TBN. And in three and a half days over Easter weekend in 2020, more people saw a Sight and Sound production than two years of sold-out theaters. 

Tim Barton [00:10:11] Whoa. 

Josh Enck [00:10:12] And it was the worst economic year of our ministry's history, but it was the greatest ministry outreach year. And the Lord took care of us, and we feel like that was a Spirit-led decision, and the Lord has just blessed us with that. And that's when we felt the call to not just have the world come to us, but for us to go to them. And with the films, we were commissioned by the board of directors to do films of figures and events from history that changed the world because Christ first changed them. 

Rick Green [00:10:45] Oh, that's good. Okay, wait, I'm going to interrupt you for just a second. I got to ask this. That's a big shift from, and I've seen trying to, I know I watched David, you know, the film production version of your stage show. My daughter has been able to go and see in person and she is just, she's twice, over the moon. I've only gotten to see it, but even watching that, that such a different animal. And it was amazing even being able to on video, such a different animal. Then producing something like The Great Awakening and film. How did you tackle that? Like, well, I'm just curious in your mind, like, how did you go, okay, how are we gonna shift? What different things do we need to learn? What do we, you know, I mean, cause to do it as well as you did it, I gotta admit, I was skeptical, bro. I was very skeptical that you could pull it off and I shouldn't be, but I was, and you did. So, I'm curious, what questions did you ask to be able to do that? 

Josh Enck [00:11:39] Yeah, no, great question. You know, we don't look at it as a shift. We look at as a maturation of our ministry. You know what we're called to do is to bring truthful moments to the audience that they can have a response to it. And whether it's on stage or screen, the core of what we do is the same. And so, we're still, as I speak, I just came from rehearsals of our next stage production which premieres here in a week on Joshua. So we have not let the foot off of the gas for our stage productions. But what we've done is we've accelerated our calling on film, on screen. This is our second feature film. And honestly, like directing talent is the same for both. It's just that you have a 300-foot wrap around stage or a camera right up in your face. And it takes the same discipline to bring those truthful moments out. But the Lord put this film on my heart personally three years ago. I knew, I was born in 1976. I'm a bicentennial baby. So, I was a patriot from day one, man. And I knew the 250th was coming up and I was passionate about doing something that would bring the Bible's definition of liberty to the forefront. And so, liberty was a beautiful word that I really wanted to wrap our head and our hearts around. And I was convinced it was gonna be, you know, a film on the Revolution on George Washington. And for about a year, I was hitting these creative roadblocks with this film. And my wife sent me away to an Airbnb in your Valley Forge, which is not far from our home. And I sought the Lord for three days and two nights, just me and my dog. And on day two, I really had a breakthrough. I felt the Lord say to my heart, you had liberty, right? You have your Georges wrong. And I remembered-. 

Rick Green [00:13:29] Wow!

Josh Enck [00:13:31] I remembered my writing partner, Jeff Bender. His favorite person in history was this George Whitefield. And it didn't really interest me necessarily, but then when I started to discover the power in his voice, the theatrical training that he had, he wanted to be a theater actor, this George Whitfield. And I started getting intrigued, then I started Google this man, and I started realize the absolute, the incredible impact that he has in the 30 years that led up to the Revolution to bring in the self-governing people. That brought in this incredible awakening that was the most formative event in American history, and that he was best friends with Benjamin Franklin. I fell off my chair. I'm like, okay, this story needs to be told. You couldn't write this, you couldn't make this up, right, this is too good, yeah. Washington's gonna take a little bit of a backseat here because I think I found something. And you can say that, he should never take a back seat. But it was. Really powerful because I was, I immediately became passionate about how the Lord providentially put the most powerful evangelist of all time, arguably with the most prolific communicator of all time, Ben Franklin. And so, our heart from that day forward was, let's put Whitfield back in the pulpit. Let's put Franklin back at his press. Let's do a film called A Great Awakening, which explores their unlikely friendship that really revolutionized our culture. What we say with this film, A Great Awakening, which comes out April 3rd theaters nationwide is it was the revolution, the revelation before the Revolution. 

Rick Green [00:15:13] Well, and your trailer, man, when you released the trailer month, months ago, and it had that line when it, when the kid, when I guess the, the grandson asked Franklin, yeah, you know, you, you knew him in the Revolution or whatever it was in his line is George Whitfield was the Revolution. Oh my gosh, I fell out of my chair. I was like, I'm gonna love this movie as soon as I heard that line I was, like, this is gonna be incredible! 

Josh Enck [00:15:37] Oh man, praise the Lord. Yeah, we really feel like the Lord authored this for us. We bring everything in under His authority, man. And this is not about us. It's not about Sight and Sound creating a cool film. It's about a, it's not a movie, it a movement. We really truly believe that the Lord's gonna do something, and already is, stirring the hearts of men and women with this powerful, unknown story. 

Rick Green [00:16:04] This it's, it's so good. And like I said, the timing is so perfect because as people celebrate the 250th and you know, we talk about making America great again and all those great things, we have to know what made America great in the first place. And so, you're racking back even before the Revolution itself, but yet telling it through the Revolution, which is what I loved. I loved the time travel in the way it's not time travel, but just the flashbacks and how you start with that, you know, the, the scene at the Convention and I love the frustration. I don't want to give away too much in the movie, obviously, but that you see in and Franklin's face and Washington's face. You just, you, you did some things that could have come across, you know, fake or cheesy or whatever. It was, it, was risky and you did, and you did them so well, man. It's, it's, that's so And I don't, our listeners know, we don't perfume it up. Like if it's, if it turns out cheesy, we say so. And on the, on the show and you guys, God just gave you the ability somehow to get past that, which is. I hope you're planning to do a lot more movies. Honestly, I don't want, and that's part of why we want to promote this and encourage people to go opening day because it's so important to, to what happens, you know, in the, in, the coming weeks after opening day to have a good opening weekend and all that. Because we want to see you do more and more of these movies. So, I don't want to get ahead of myself here. We want this to be a success, but part of the reason we want it to be a success is because these are the stories that need to be told and they need to told well. 

Josh Enck [00:17:34] Rick, thank you, man. You know, and the thing is like these, just because they're long gone and they've passed away doesn't mean that their anthems are dead and that the banners they waved are dead and that sermons that they preach are dead. George Whitefield spoke; he was heard by over 80% of the colonists with their own ears. And our prayer, which is a crazy prayer, is that what if, what if Whitefield's back in the pulpit and 80% of Americans can hear his voice once again and proclaim liberty throughout all the land. And to all the inhabitants thereof. Like our part is part of this and to be on the forefront of this. And just going back to your compliment about not being hokey and cheesy, our standard is high because the audiences are extremely smart. And I got saved when I was 19. So, I grew up feasting on these big epic films of the 80s, man. I was like watching Rocky and Platoon and Braveheart and Schindler's List and you know, all these incredible movies. And so. We want to bring that same artistry to these historical films. 

Rick Green [00:18:36] Well, you pulled it off for sure with this one. Thanks for sending us screeners. Let's talk about what people could do now because off air we were talking about the fact you can actually get tickets now in anticipation of opening day. And did you say the 6th, April 6th is opening day? 

Josh Enck [00:18:52] No, spread the word April 3rd. 

Rick Green [00:18:54] Third, third, okay, whoa, whoa. We don't want them to miss the, okay. So April 3rd, April 3 is opening day and that'll be all over the country. What's the website to be able to go find out which theater's close to them and go ahead and get tickets. 

Josh Enck [00:19:08] Agreatawakening.com, agreatawakening.com. They can also go to site-sound.com. But if you just type in a great awakening movie, it'll come up. And in just a kind of an important note, it's called A Great Awakening, not The Great Awakened because there's a couple more documentaries out there. But we're so thrilled to be bringing this to the masses and to this beautiful nation, especially in this 250th year where the word liberty is gonna be at the centerpiece of so many conversations, and this film really clearly lays out that true liberty is only found in Jesus Christ, and so we're passionate about bringing that to the forefront through these two incredible people, Benjamin Franklin, of all people, and George Whitefield. 

Rick Green [00:19:51] Agreatawakening.com, agreatawakening.com is the website. And, and I tell you, I'm going to recommend to all of our listeners, grab the link on the trailer and, and just text that to friends. I texted that to my family chat when it, when it first came out. And I mean, everybody was just like, once they watched it was, oh, we can't wait to see this. Can't wait see this. So, it's, it's really, really well done. So, send that trailer, be a force multiplier, help get this, this movie in as many hands as possible. Not only so that we get, you know, continued good entertainment. In the future, but because of what this movie can do for the heart of the people. I'm not blowing smoke here, Josh, I'm telling you, there were so many scenes that, I mean, chills and tears. And it just, it captured so many moments that, and maybe part of what I was thinking about was not only that moment and what it meant for the person in the scene, but just knowing what audience, what it's gonna do to audiences across the country. So, it's just, bro, I am super, super excited. Before I let you go, and I know we're out of time, but before I let go, catch us up real quick, what are the stage productions this year? 

Josh Enck [00:20:53] Ronks for Pennsylvania, our theater premiere show, Joshua, to watch the walls come down. And then in Branson, Missouri, we have our second year of David out there. So, we're busy. We got a lot going on, man. So. 

Rick Green [00:21:06] So Branson is David, and then Joshua in Lancaster. You said you're not far from Valley Forge. Do you live in Lancaster? Is that home for you? 

Josh Enck [00:21:15] I was born and raised in Lancaster County. And we live about an hour and 15 minutes away from the great city of Philadelphia. And Valley Forge is just kind of in our backyard. So, we've been saturated and inundated in this culture. And I believe like where the country was birthed out of Philly, it's gonna be rebirthed. I think that there's a mighty move of God coming across this nation. And I'm just thankful to be a part of it. 

Rick Green [00:21:40] It's awesome. It's awesome. Oh man, all right, agreatawakening.com, agreatawakening.com. Get the tickets now. April 3rd is opening day. You don't want to miss this. Josh, appreciate you, man. Thanks for coming on today. 

Josh Enck [00:21:50] I appreciate you guys too and all you do for us. Thank you. 

Rick Green [00:21:53] Folks stay with us. We'll be right back with David and Tim Barton. 

Rick Green [00:23:02] Welcome back to the WallBuilders Show. So, there you have it folks. April 3rd is opening day. And, uh, and of course guys it's, it's cool to see we've all, we've heard that y'all may have been to some of these shows too. I haven't been to any of the live ones. As I mentioned in the interview, my daughter hasn't I've wanted to go, but I've seen some of the, kind of adaptions to film. Anyway, they've done a great creative job of the past, but man, we need feature films like this. So, David, I think what you said at the opening is, is spot on man. More of this. It's a throwback to those, those epic movies that tell such great stories. 

David Barton [00:23:31] Yeah, there are so many great stories from back in those golden years of Hollywood. Matter of fact, we're working on a book. It'll be out in a couple of years, but it is the American story dealing more with the 20th century and the story of Hollywood back in. Those golden years is really the story of Christian entertainment in a big way. It's not that changed in the 60s, but this is a throwback to that. It is a great recovery, great, healthy thing for the nation. 

Tim Barton [00:23:58] It struck me as he talked about it would be so great to get George Whitfield's voice back in America again. And it struck me that, you know, when you go back to the founding era, one of the things we talk about often, it's well documented, the influence of pastors on the Founding Fathers, how significant their voices were. And one of the most significant voices in the founding area from a pastor standpoint was a pastor named John Wise. But John Wise did not pastor in the Founding Era. He pastored Massachusetts back in the late 1600s. Through the early 1700s? And so, if you just look at when he died and look at the Founding Era, you go, well, how did this guy influence them? And it's because the Sons of Liberty reprinted two of his sermons and they distributed those through all of the colonies. And as Americans read the sermons of John Wise and got some biblical discipleship training, they realized, whoa, a lot of what's happening right now under the king, under the crown, these royal appointed governors, these judges, whoever, they’re violating what the Bible says government should do, et cetera. And so, it really was pastors' voices from a different generation that were revived, that were part of that awakening. And we've talked often, we think we're, we're probably in another awakening based on not just the fact that God is moving all over this nation, which He is, and it's amazing. But also, the fact, that we are seeing a shift toward pastors trying to emphasize discipleship so much more. And when you do, one of the things that we can show historically happened, like in the Founding Era, they didn't just have incredible pastors in their time, which they did, like a George Whitfield and we can go through Edwards and Cooper and Chauncey, et cetera, but also even going back to voices of old who were speaking such profound truth and those revived voices impacted culture. And so certainly bringing Whitfield back would be pretty awesome. To help reintroduce to Americans to him and understand the true founding of this nation being rooted and shaped by the pastors. 

David Barton [00:25:58] And what a great time to do it on the 250th, because he really is probably the single individual most responsible for us starting the nation at that 250th kind of birthday. So, this is a great, great time to bring this movie out.  

Rick Green [00:26:14] Yeah, David, it is the perfect time for this to happen. And what a great example of lives, fortune, sacred honor before that phrase was popular, I mean it shows Whitfield's sacrifice to do those 18,000 services, to be on horseback all the time. And it really it in many ways it gives us a theatrical version of what you've been teaching for decades and decades. I mean, you've always had Whitfield as a part of the story because it's part of what made America What it became. So I just love the fact that we have a theatrical version of that now really encourage everybody to go. Agreatawakening.com. That's agreatawakening.com. You've been listening to the WallBuilders